The orginal name of Steig Larson's novel Girl with the Dragon tattoo was Men who hate women. If you ever needed proof that they walk among us, just spend a little time in the video game industry, or playing games online, as a woman.
I moved from a career in health care to the video game industry in 2005. It was both wonderful and bewildering to go from overseeing the work of a team of 30 women to a team of 30 men. The cultures couldn't have been more different. Surprisingly, for the most part, I really enjoyed working with the guys -- they were generous with their knowledge, patient in teaching me the ropes, and we had a lot of fun together. But, there was also a tremendous amount of sexism.
But let me be really clear -- this both worked for me and against me. As an attractive women in a male dominated field, I am sure I was able to get meetings with top executives that my male colleagues would have had more difficulty securing. I am not a flirt, I've never been intimate with anyone in my industry, but I know that the very fact that I am a tall blonde woman was a distinguishing trait that allowed me to stick out and be remembered.
The contracts we signed and the games we made were solely based on talent -- but getting the meetings was easier for me. I just want to be clear that there sexism is a two way street, and I'd be disingenuous if I didn't acknowledge that. I experienced it both as a debit and a credit. I saw and experienced lots of negative sexism as well. Many of the studios I've visited are more like frat houses than places of business, and if you are offended by seeing naked breasts all the time, you'd last about an hour in these studios.
I took what I learned from the guys and opened my own studio, Silicon Sisters Interactive, and we are a largely female studio building games for women and girls. The guys who work with us are awesome and fully on board with creating better (read "less stereotyped") content for the female market.
Just when I think I've come to place of being comfortable in the industry, something happens that has made me question what I'm doing here. I don't think there is skin thick enough to not be deeply perturbed by the harassment and hatred directed at feminist media critic and gamer Anita Sarkeesian.
It actually makes me feel sick. Her experience is also just too familiar. For those who think an isolated incident is getting blown out of proportion by a "feminist agenda," let me assure you this is not the case. Sarkeesian is experiencing a hostility that many women in the games industry have experienced to varying degrees for many years. And it's ugly.
What did this woman do to lead to the death threats, the threat of being raped, becoming the target of vile depictions of her in pornographic contexts, and more? She decided to raise money on Kickstarter to create a video series examining the use of "tropes" to depict women in video games. That's it. Perhaps the most disturbing reaction to her work is the creation and dissemination of a video game where you simulate the act of beating Sarkeesian up.
As you click your mouse, her face becomes more and more bruised, bloodied and beaten. Remember -- this woman's only crime was to speak and write about the portrayal of women in video games. Her words -- the fact that she is challenging an industry where misogyny is placidly accepted and displayed -- have upset the status quo so much that the degree of pushback is truly shocking. It is a classic effort to silence someone.
A number of women in the industry have had enough. Sarkeesian didn't deserve this treatment, and we are no longer standing idly by to watch it happen. There are a number of initiatives afoot to counter the "misogyny trolls" who hide behind the anonymity of the Internet. Bringing them into the light and requiring them to defend their actions without the veil of anonymity is important.
Men and Women in the industry and beyond are speaking up and taking action against this type of hatred. Stephanie Guthrie of Toronto shone the light on gamer Ben "Bendilin" Spurr, the creator of "Beat UP Anita Sarkeesian," and as a result, Stephanie Guthrie has been the recipient of death threats. Her motivation in exposing his identity via social media is a valid one -- "to hold him accountable as a person for his actions behind an Internet avatar." Rest assured that the women in tech, and the many male colleagues who support us, are not asleep on this one -- we are fighting back, and we will continue to do so. Damn the torpedoes!
Follow Brenda Bailey Gershkovitch on Twitter: www.twitter.com/bren67
1. The console gaming audience has been identified as primarily young male over its history. This can probably be attributed to the genre being created by young male engineers in the 80's, the product pulls the audience. The executives have pushed design of games to appeal to that market, the infrequent attempts to create 'games for women' have been usually failures.
2. Games that are NOT based on standard console game tropes of conquest and domination have succeeded with both men and women on PC's and other devices. The Sims, Civilization, Bejeweled... any number of games have done very well, but only outside the console game market. I have tried to bring up these games as a basis for creating more kinds of console games, but the execs can't take the risk as they must answer to their shareholders.
cont'd
And now feminists want to ruin that too.
Beating someone isn't arguing, raping them isn't going to change their minds, and threatening them is in no way democratic. There is no excuse, can be no escuse for what these people are doing.
"...there are consequences to naming men and male power. You will be ridiculed, silenced, maybe physically threatened. You might be r@ped. You might be killed." Lierre Keith http://www.lierrekeith.com/aric_mcbayinterview.htm
But oh noes! It's only bad when men do it?
I'm a woman who enjoys gaming but the first time I tried Xbox live, left me cold on the community. I still play but only with friends or by myself. I know that I shouldn't have let them win but my one experience was bad enough I nearly stopped gaming entirely. Between the sexual harassment (guessing how attractive I was in real life - they concluded on the barely side) and the threats to my vagina (despite how I probably looked like a whale), I was out.
I was listening to a podcast the other day and hearing stories about woman that say "Hey, I work in the games industry" and people reply with things like "Oh, you must be in PR" is very troublesome and infuriating.
Sadly, this happens in every field and on both sides. I have been working in housekeeping for 6 years and as a male hear comments such as "Oh, I was expecting someone with longer hair" way too often. Stereotypes are everywhere.
Great post though. :D
Just ask Jack Thompson how gamers react to someone questioning the status quo.
Not to sound too callous, as I certainly don't condone death threats or violence directed at an individual for their opinions, but EVERYONE that spends time online, gaming or otherwise, would do well to grow a thicker skin.
I grew up loving video games in the 80's, 90's and on, and as a girl, I experienced a lot of the abuse and sexism, too. I tried to get into the industry and was blocked at every attempt. Even trying to learn programming left me feeling beaten down, and I unfortunately gave up.
Not to say I don't still play games - I do, and I give my feedback as best I can. A huge part of the issues we as women face are brought on by other women. I often was ridiculed by other girls for loving gaming - this is something we need to teach our own daughters is wrong.
Also - the vast majority of men are not women haters in gaming. Those who act like that are the very vocal minority, and most are young. One cannot say that what is said on XBOX live is what you hear everywhere. It's simply not.
Women do need to stand up for themselves in this industry more - but what needs to change is the male domination as executives. That won't for a long time, but we need to get our daughters into engineering, computers, and technical aspects of the world so they can become game programmers and designers and change the industry from